My Little Pony - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

My Little Pony, a popular toy line, is referenced in a variety of media. The ponies have had cameo appearances in movies and TV shows, including two Robot Chicken shorts, several appearances in the Cartoon Network show Dexter's Laboratory and Veronica Mars. My Little Pony toys appear on The Cosby Show, G4's show Action Blast!, Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Boy Meets World and The OC. In the 2007 Transformers film a My Little Pony toy appears as a reference to Hasbro, which owns the licenses for both My Little Pony and Transformers. The toys are also mentioned in the films Meet the Robinsons and Nickelodeon's movie Spectacular!, which includes one actor, Venus Terzo, who does voice-overs on the My Little Pony TV series. References to My Little Pony also appear in the Backyard Sports series of video games. In the music video of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's song PONPONPON, an unopened Generation 2 My Little Pony Toy is seen in the background.

Nicknames and gags related to My Little Pony have been created for prominent people. Radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham referred to former Senator John Edwards as "Silky Pony" and plays the My Little Pony theme music when discussing him. Jonathan I. Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, was nicknamed "MLP" by Daniel Lyons. In 2005, when US President George W. Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, political cartoonist Steve Sack drew a cartoon depicting Bush brushing a pony toy with false eyelashes with the title "My Little Crony" shortly after the dismissal of Michael D. Brown for failing to handle the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

Wizards of the Coast, Something Positive, Slashdot, Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, and Sister Claire have all referenced My Little Pony in gags and April Fool's jokes. A Nick at Nite ad for Mister Ed says he's no "My Little Pony". In the seventh book in the Artemis Fowl book series, The Atlantis Complex the antagonist (Turnball Root) refers to the centaur Foaly as "My Little Pony". In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, it is referenced as "My Little Binky", which Death bought as a present for his granddaughter Susan (Binky, in this case, was Death's horse). A June 2011 article in Wired.com focused on “bronies” (“bro ponies”): adult men or boys who are fans of the 2010 television series.